Sunday, October 09, 2005

Joss Whedon talks about how he shot Serenity in L.A. in this L.A. Times article. Supposedly a lot of people (powerful ones like Jodie Foster) are rebelling against shooting out of town because it strains their marriages. (It's sweet, people in LA caring about their marriages.) Methinks the LA Times doth protest too much, but still, it tells you a bit about the biz.

11:54 AM

5 Comments:

" -to find efficiencies that would make a $39-million movie look and feel like $100 million."

That implies that the status quo of Hollywood filmmaking has been inefficient, which is, in my opinion, true. In reading the article about how they saved money - you begin to understand that these cost-cutting procedures used to be standard operating procedure: Storyboards, camera placement on moving sets (in this case, the hovercraft), re-imagining existing sets by the use of foreground miniatures, repainting, previsualization, etc...

How did this happen? How did we get to the point where we didn't plan how to shoot a movie?

And why are so many people surprised when studios took off to other countries where the workforce said, "yes, we can build that," or "yes, we'll offer you a tax rebate on all of the locals that you hire." It's called being competitive, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Erm, Alex, Jodie's NOT married. She can't get married in CA... maybe in MA, if those pesky (and persistent) rumours about her are true. The article takes pains to point out it was her CHILDREN that caused all that teeth grinding and salary slashing.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and assume that Jodie has a spouse, in the moral sense of the word if not the legal sense. She's had amazing success keeping her private life out of the tabloids. I asked someone from People how she does that, and the Girl from People told me she trades lots of publicity on her movies for quiet on her personal life. You want interviews with Jodie? Your paper, and the papers owned by your media conglomerate, don't bother her at home. That she's been able to pull that off is one of the many things about her that impress me. (Another is that the few times I've bumped into her since Yale, she's recognized me, or given a convincing performance of doing so.)

As for the rumours, let's just say that people in the biz that I've talked to take it as a given that if she were to address them directly it would likely destroy her star status...

if she were to address them directly it would likely destroy her star status...

Yes, it would, which is a sad commentary on the state of things in this nation. We have "stars" like Paris Hilton who's private picadillos have been downloaded by the thousands and yet, someone who's as intelligent and classy as Ms. Foster MUST hide an essential part of who they are and who they love because all those idjits who downloaded Paris' porn and thought nothing of it would sit in judgement of someone who's gay.

I don't know Ms. Foster, (nor do I have any information about her personal life) but I have a great deal of admiration for her. Not only for her classic beauty but for her ability to keep her life private. I think that she's a very gutsy woman who's determined to be her own person, as well as determined to excel in the work that she obviously adores doing. Would that other "stars" were so intelligent and classy in their behavior. Regardless of their sexual orientation.